Information Centric Networking (ICN) is a network model or architecture in which the focus is on locating and providing information to users rather than on connecting end hosts that exchange data. For example, in ICN-based communication, application requests may bind to the network layer over named entities (e.g., content object, user device, service) and de-couple its location and address information, which may eliminate the need for pre-binding. For another example, name-based routing with in-network caching may allow mobility to be handled in an efficient and flexible manner. For yet another example, security credentials appended to the ICN packet may allow location independence of data and/or service, thereby helping to realize agile information dissemination.
ICN services may be provided by a service provider or producer and consumed by a service user or subscriber. The service consumers and providers may be located in ICN networks, which may be overlaid on an optical network. The optical network may serve as a core network that provides a basic transporting architecture for service flows between service consumers and service producers. In order to facilitate communication, ICN service flows in the ICN networks or domains need to be mapped to optical flows, which may traverse the optical network using various types of optical resources.